WW1 RPG

INTERNAL POLITICAL TENSION
Berlin was also the center of German politics, and by 1915 the tensions were real:
The social democratic SPD had voted in favor of war credits in 1914 under patriotic pressure — but by 1915 the pacifist faction was growing
Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht began to organize anti-war opposition in Berlin
Liebknecht would be the only deputy to vote against war credits in December 1914
Imperial censorship suppressed critical voices but did not completely silence them
Berlin in 1915 was a political pressure cooker that would explode in 1918-1919
Berlin in 1915 was a city of brutal contradictions — pompous imperial capital and miserable working-class neighborhoods, scientific geniuses and soldiers dying in the mud, victory propaganda and hunger queues, packed cabarets and trains of wounded arriving at night.

CULTURE AND NIGHTLIFE
Despite the war — or perhaps because of it — Berlin maintained a vibrant cultural life:
Theaters and cabarets were packed — people needed to escape
Silent cinema on the rise — Berlin was becoming the capital of European cinema
Literary cafes where writers and artists debated the meaning of war
Newspapers with massive circulations — the Berlin press was influential throughout Germany
Imperial propaganda in posters, pamphlets and patriotic shows
But also a growing body of anti-war literature circulating clandestinely, BERLIN AT NIGHT IN 1915
Mandatory partial blackouts due to fear of allied zeppelins
City lights dimmed — Berlin's famously illuminated streets turned off as a precaution
Military patrols in the streets
Restaurants and cabarets closed earlier
An atmosphere of contained tension — the city that had celebrated the start of the war with marching bands in 1914 was now receiving trains with wounded from the front
INTELLECTUAL BERLIN — The lesser-known side
Berlin in 1915 was one of the intellectual capitals of the world:
Albert Einstein was in Berlin in 1915 — that year he published the General Theory of Relativity while the city around him was bleeding in war
The University of Berlin had more Nobel Prizes per capita than any other institution in the world
Max Planck (quantum physics), Fritz Haber (ammonia synthesis, and also inventor of poison gas) were active Berliners
A concentration of scientific geniuses working simultaneously to advance science AND win the war

HUNGER — The reality of 1915
This is crucial and is often forgotten:
The British naval blockade had been strangling Germany since 1914.
By 1915 food was beginning to become seriously scarce
War bread (Kriegsbrot) — a mixture of flour with sawdust, ground straw, and other fillers of dubious nutritional value 💀
Ration cards for bread, meat, fat, sugar
The black market flourished — if you had money you could get almost anything, if you didn't have money you went hungry
The poorest Berliners in 1915 were already genuinely malnourished
Queues outside food stores became part of the everyday urban landscape.
By 1916-17 came the "turnip winter" where basically that was all there was to eat.

THE PEOPLE OF BERLIN IN 1915
A city of almost 2 million had completely different social layers living in parallel:
The imperial elite:
Prussian aristocracy, high-ranking military officers, wealthy industrialists
They lived in Charlottenburg, Tiergarten, villas in the suburbs
Opera, theaters, elegant restaurants, private clubs
In 1915 they were sending their sons to the front as officers — the elite casualties were real
The Berlin bourgeoisie:
University professors, doctors, lawyers, merchants, engineers
Berlin had one of the most prestigious universities in the world — Humboldt University
Literary and political cafés where everything was debated
Newspapers of every imaginable political persuasion
The working class:
The majority of the population
Northern neighborhoods completely culturally separate from the imperial center
Strong trade unions, active socialist movement — the SPD (Social Democratic Party) was the most voted party in Germany
In 1915, people began to murmur against the war that promised a quick victory but delivered only casualties and hunger.

TRANSPORTATION — Surprisingly modern
By 1915, Berlin had one of the most advanced transport systems in Europe:
U-Bahn (subway) — opened in 1902, already with several lines in operation. Berlin had a subway before many cities that considered themselves more modern.
S-Bahn (suburban and elevated train) — connected the city center with the outer neighborhoods
Tram network — extensive, electric, covering virtually the entire city
Cars—more common than in other European cities. Berlin was a city of engineers, and car culture arrived early.
Motorized taxis gradually replacing horse-drawn taxis
In 1915 specifically, a large number of the city's horses had been requisitioned for the army. Motor vehicles gained popularity out of necessity.
INDUSTRIAL BERLIN — The war machine
Berlin was not just a political capital. It was an industrial giant:
Siemens — founded in Berlin, manufacturing cables, electric motors and military equipment
AEG (Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft) — another Berlin electric giant
Krupp had interconnected operations, although its center was Essen.
Factories for ammunition, uniforms, medical equipment, vehicles
By 1915 many civilian factories had been converted to war production
North and East Berlin were essentially one vast industrial complex where smoke from the chimneys was a constant presence. Workers labored in 12-hour shifts, producing what the front consumed.

The first thing to understand — Berlin in 1915 was a city undergoing brutal transformation
It was not the elegant imperial Berlin of 1910. It was a metropolis of almost 2 million people that had entered the war with euphoria in 1914 and by 1915 was already beginning to feel the real weight of the conflict.
📍 THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE CITY
Berlin in 1915 was not a compact block — it was a constellation of neighborhoods with radically different personalities:
Mitte — the historic center. Palaces, ministries, the Reichstag, imperial monuments. Official and pompous Berlin.
Unter den Linden—the main boulevard, 1.5 km of imperial elegance. Embassies, luxury hotels, the Opera House, the University of Berlin. Germany's showcase to the world.
Tiergarten — the large central park, comparable to Central Park. The wealthy used to stroll there.
Charlottenburg — an elegant bourgeois neighborhood in the west, technically a separate city until 1920
Wedding and Moabit — industrial working-class neighborhoods in the north. Factories, poverty, overcrowding
Kreuzberg — working class, immigrants, workshops
Potsdamer Platz — already one of the busiest intersections in Europe in 1915. Trams, cars, people, organized chaos
THE ARCHITECTURE — Imposing by design
Kaiser Wilhelm II was obsessed with making Berlin visually powerful to impress the world:
Massive stone public buildings with columns, domes, and equestrian statues everywhere
The Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral), completed in 1905 — enormous, ornate, designed to rival St. Peter's in Rome
The Reichstag with its glass and iron dome — symbol of the imperial parliament
Schloss Berlin — the imperial palace in the city center, a huge baroque complex
Statues of William I, Bismarck and Prussian generals in every major square
Everything conveyed one message: Germany is great, Germany is powerful, Germany is here to stay.
But mixed in with all that imperial pomp were gray, functional workers' blocks.

RICH/ARISTOCRATIC HOME — Another world
An urban mansion or an entire floor of a luxury building.
10 to 20 rooms minimum
Domestic staff for 5 to 15 people: butler, cook, maids, coachman, gardener
Ballroom in large houses
Formal dining room with silverware and porcelain tableware
My own library with hundreds of books
Separate smoking room for men after dinner
Private dressing room for the lady
Full electrical wiring, central heating possibly
Own phone
Car with driver
But by 1915 even these households were changing drastically — the sons were at the front, the male staff had been drafted, and aristocratic money was beginning to evaporate with the war.

BOURGEOIS/MIDDLE CLASS HOUSEHOLD — The one who aspired to more
A 5-7 room apartment or a small house.
The space:
Reception room — the most important room, where people were received. Always clean and tidy.
Dining room separate from the kitchen
Single bedrooms or shared by a maximum of two children
A room for the maid — having even one domestic servant was a status symbol
The maid:
Almost every bourgeois family had at least one
Usually a young girl from the countryside who worked in exchange for room, board and minimum wage
I worked from 5am to 10pm, days off were extremely rare.
I slept in the smallest and worst room in the apartment.
She was socially invisible but essential to the functioning of the household
Technology:
Telephone possibly — expensive but a symbol of modernity
Electricity is more likely than in working-class homes
Possibly a phonograph — the equivalent of a stereo system of the time
Singer sewing machine — practically universal in the middle class, all clothes were mended at home
Bourgeois cuisine:
Bigger and better cast iron stove
Well-organized cold storage
Much greater variety of food — meat several days a week, fresh vegetables, desserts
The lady of the house did not cook if there was a maid — she supervised and planned.
The salon and culture:
Piano — if there was a piano at home you were definitely middle class
Personal library with some books
Board games, cards
Social visits were the main form of entertainment — people visited each other with strict protocol
Business cards, fixed reception hours, specific clothing for receiving visitors

AN AVERAGE HOME IN 1915
First — social class was everything
There wasn't such a clearly defined "middle class" as there is today. It was basically:
Worker — the majority of the urban population
Bourgeois/middle class — merchants, employees, professionals
Rich/aristocrat — small but visible minority
Let's go with all three because they were completely different worlds under the same roof in the same city.
🔨 WORKER'S HOME — The reality for most
Imagine a 2 to 3 bedroom apartment for a family of 5 or 6 people.
The space:
A kitchen that was also a dining room and living room — all in one
A bedroom for the parents
Another room where all the children slept together, sometimes sharing beds
Low ceiling, uninsulated brick walls, wooden or stone floor
Small windows — natural light was an architectural luxury
The heating:
A single coal or wood stove in the kitchen
The rest of the apartment in winter was literally frozen.
Sleeping with several people in one room was functional — body heat warmed the room.
Waking up at 5am in a European winter without heating was a survival experience 💀
The bathroom:
In many cases there was no bathroom inside the apartment
Shared latrine in the building's hallway or courtyard
Bathing was a weekly event — a metal tub filled with water heated on the stove
Running water reached a common tap per floor, not each apartment.
Body odor was simply normal and universal 💀
The kitchen:
Cast iron stove, charcoal or wood-burning — cooked and heated
Without a refrigerator — perishable food in a cold cupboard or outside in winter
Daily shopping because nothing lasted
Repetitive diet: bread, potatoes, cabbage, legumes, some meat on Sundays if there was money
Bread was literally the center of the diet — a working-class family could spend 40% of their income on bread alone
The lighting:
Electricity arriving but not universal in working-class homes in 1915
Many still used gas lamps 💀

NIGHT IN THE CITY
And this is what most differentiates 1915 from today —
True darkness. Without light pollution, the nights were truly dark.
In cities at war, mandatory blackouts to avoid any association with zeppelins
Nightlife existed but ended early — people got up early because the work was physical.
The nighttime silence was incomparable to any modern city.
And on the front lines, a few hundred kilometers away, the cannons were thundering nonstop.

INFORMATION AND CULTURE
Newspapers—the main source of information. A medium-sized city could have five or six different newspapers with varying political leanings.
Telephones existed but were expensive and rare in homes — more common in businesses
Silent films—a huge form of popular entertainment. By 1915, there were cinemas in almost every medium-sized European city.
Theatre and opera for the upper classes
Taverns and bars as a social center for the working class
Radio—it didn't yet exist for the general public. It would arrive in the 1920s.
HEALTH AND MEDICINE
Things get dark here.
Life expectancy ~50 years in Western Europe
Extremely high infant mortality — dying before the age of 5 was common
Tuberculosis was epidemic in cities — the disease of the urban poor
Antibiotics didn't exist — a bacterial infection could kill you
The flu was truly dangerous — the Spanish flu of 1918 was already brewing
Medical hygiene existed, but it was basic compared to today.
Hospitals were places where you went to die, not necessarily to get better.

THE ECONOMY OF THE CITY AT WAR
Because 1915 was not a normal year — the war changed EVERYTHING:
Rationing starting in many countries — sugar, bread, meat controlled by the government
Women working in factories, offices and transport replacing men on the front lines
Soaring prices — brutal inflation, especially in Germany and Austria
Propaganda posters on every wall — recruitment, resource conservation, hatred of the enemy
Cities near the front could hear the cannons. In Paris in 1915, German bombing raids were audible.
Field hospitals converted into hotels, schools, and public buildings
🛒 THE MARKET AND FOOD
Open-air markets for fresh produce — supermarkets did not exist
Small specialty shops: bakery, butcher shop, dairy, hardware store — each separate
People bought it daily because there was no common domestic refrigeration
Diet fairly limited by season — in winter, tubers, preserves, bread
Coffee was an important social ritual in Central Europe — Viennese and German coffeehouses were centers of political and intellectual debate
In cities at war, the menu dwindled month by month. Poor things, it was hell 💀

A STANDARD EUROPEAN CITY IN 1915
First things first — it depended A LOT on where you were
London wasn't the same as Warsaw. Nor was Paris the same as a village in the Balkans. But there was a fairly well-defined "average" city for Western and Industrial Europe. Let's start with that one.
THE STREET — The first thing you would see
You go out into the street in, say, a medium-sized German, French, or Belgian city in 1915 and you see:
Cobblestones — most main streets were made of stone or cobblestones, not asphalt. Asphalt existed but was expensive and uncommon.
Electric trams—already replacing horse-drawn trams in medium-sized cities. Noisy, slow, but functional.
Horses and carts coexisted with the first automobiles—but cars were rare and for the wealthy. Most freight transport was still animal-drawn.
Gas streetlights were still a common sight on many streets, although electric ones were rapidly advancing.
Smell — of horses, burnt coal, garbage, food. The cities of 1915 smelled strong 💀
HOUSES AND BUILDINGS
Most buildings are 4 to 6 stories high, constructed of stone or brick.
The rich used to live in ground-floor apartments or in their own houses — unlike today where a high-rise apartment is worth more
The poor lived crammed together on the upper floors without an elevator.
Coal heating — each room had its own stove or fireplace. Coal had to be purchased regularly.
Electricity was arriving but not universal — many homes still used gas or candles
Running water in large cities, but not always on every floor. Sometimes there's only one tap per building.
Bathrooms — in many buildings, one per floor shared between several apartments
PEOPLE IN THE STREET
Something that would immediately strike you is that everyone was very formally dressed compared to today:
Men with mandatory hats — bowler hat for the middle class, top hat for the rich, cap for workers
Women in floor-length skirts, corsets still common although beginning to fall out of use
Kids dressed as miniature adults lol XD

THE KAISERS
Kaiser
Period
Summary
William I
1871-1888
The first one. An old man, he let Bismarck govern.
Frederick III
1888
He reigned for 99 days, died of throat cancer. He would have been more liberal.
William II
1888-1918
The one who brought everything to disaster. Impulsive, insecure, ambitious
William II deserves his own section because he's a character straight out of a novel —
WILLIAM II — The Kaiser of Disaster
He was born with an atrophied left arm after a difficult birth, which caused him brutal insecurity throughout his life.
He had a morbid obsession with demonstrating power and masculinity.
He adored military uniforms and always had his portrait taken with his bad arm hidden.
He fired Bismarck because he couldn't stand being overshadowed by anyone.
He wanted Germany to have a "place in the sun" — colonies, naval power, world respect
His personal rivalry with his cousin King George V of England and his cousin Tsar Nicholas II of Russia is... like something out of a soap opera.
The three were grandchildren of Queen Victoria
During the war they corresponded as a family while their countries were massacring each other.
THE REAL POWER OF THE EMPIRE
By 1914 Germany was a brutal power:
Europe's largest industrial economy — surpassed Great Britain in steel production
Best education system in the world — more universities, more scientists, more patents
Europe's most professional army — the German General Staff was the standard everyone copied
Second largest navy in the world — built specifically to rival Great Britain
They invented or perfected: aspirin, X-rays, the automobile, modern printing, industrial refrigeration
It was basically the rising power that threatened the established order, which terrified Great Britain and France.
THE COLONIES — The weak point
Unlike Great Britain and France, Germany was late to the colonial scramble:
It had territories in Africa (Namibia, Tanzania, Cameroon, Togo) and in the Pacific
But they were economically marginal compared to the British and French colonies...

from 1871-1918
The German Empire was known to be a European power with many unusual technologies... and they never acquired the colonies they desired; in short, a great deal of resentment.
So this is the origin of the German Empire:
The craziest thing first — Germany as a unified country was VERY young
In 1871, "Germany" practically did not exist as a nation. It was a patchwork of 39 independent states—kingdoms, duchies, principalities, free cities—that spoke German but went their own way.
What unified everything was Prussia by force.
HOW IT WAS BORN — The Franco-Prussian War (1870-71)
Prussia under Otto von Bismarck deliberately manipulated France into declaring war on it.
France suffered a humiliating defeat within months.
The Prussians captured the French emperor Napoleon III in person
As the final act of humiliation, they proclaimed the new German Empire in Versailles, at the palace of the French king.
France had to cede Alsace and Lorraine — a wound that did not heal until 1918
Basically, Germany was born mocking France in its own backyard.
THE STRUCTURE — How it worked
It wasn't a normal centralized country. It was a strange federation:
The Kaiser — Emperor of all Germany, but also King of Prussia simultaneously
The internal kingdoms — Bavaria, Saxony, Württemberg — maintained their own kings, armies, and policies
The Chancellor — the real power in government (Bismarck was the first and most influential)
The Reichstag — an elected parliament, but with limited power compared to the Kaiser
It was like a coalition of countries within a country, with Prussia dominating everything.
OTTO VON BISMARCK — The architect
The most important man in the Empire and one of the most skillful politicians in history.
He unified Germany through "blood and iron" — strategic wars against Denmark, Austria, and France
He created such complex alliances that he kept Europe at peace for 20 years after unification.
He introduced state health insurance, pensions, and accident insurance—not out of kindness, of course.

SNIPERS — The Silent Terror
The Germans had the best tradition of marksmen from the start — many came from a hunting culture
They used the Gewehr 98 with a telescopic sight
Trench Rule #1: Never stick your head out twice in the same place
The Allies learned to use wooden dummy heads to detect snipers — if one was shot, they could pinpoint the trajectory
A skilled sniper could paralyze an entire battalion for days. Oh, how scary! (⁠・⁠∀⁠・⁠)

POMEDIATES — Rapid evolution
At the start of the war, there were almost no standardized grenades. By 1915:
🇩🇪 Stielhandgranate ("Stick Grenade") — the famous German grenade with a wooden handle. The handle provided leverage for throwing it further. Detonation by internal cord.
🇬🇧 Mills Bomb — the classic pineapple grenade everyone imagines. Introduced in 1915, it was so good it was used until the 1970s.
🇫🇷 Petard raquette — the French had designs... creative and not always successful.

MESH WEAPONS — Trench warfare was BRUTAL
Inside the trenches, rifles were almost useless—too long to maneuver. So the soldiers resorted to things that seem straight out of the Middle Ages 💀
Trench knives — large, heavy knives
Clubs and spiked clubs — made by the soldiers themselves
Trench shovels—sharpened for use as an axe. The German shovel (Grabenschaufel) was legendary for this.
Homemade hand grenades — canning jars filled with shrapnel and explosives
Hand-to-hand combat in trenches was considered the most terrifying aspect of the war by the veterans themselves.

PISTOLS — For when everything goes wrong
Secondary weapons of officers, airmen and soldiers in confined spaces such as trenches.
Gun
Country
Detail
Luger P08
🇩🇪 Germany
The most iconic, unique articulated lever mechanism.
Webley Revolver
🇬🇧 Great Britain
Breakaway revolver, quick reload, huge caliber.
Colt M1911
🇺🇸 USA
.45 ACP, legendary reliability, used until the 80s.
Ruby
🇫🇷 France
Cheap, simple, mass-produced by Spain.

THE KING OF WAR — Bolt-Action Rifles
Infantry on all sides used them. The bolt-action system meant that after each shot, a lever had to be manually operated to eject the spent casing and load the next bullet.
🇬🇧 Lee-Enfield SMLE (Short Magazine Lee-Enfield)
The quintessential British rifle and probably the best bolt-action rifle of the war.
10-round magazine (twice as many as most)
Bolt action faster than all its rivals — a trained soldier could fire 15 rounds per minute
This was called the "Mad Minute" — the Germans in 1914 thought they were being attacked by machine guns
Used from 1895 until... basically today in some forces 💀
Effective range: ~550 meters
🇩🇪 Gewehr 98 (Mauser)
The German rifle, and the standard of accuracy of the time.
Mauser bolt action — the most copied design in history, the basis of almost all modern rifles
5 bullets in internal magazine
More accurate at long range than the Lee-Enfield
Effective range: ~500-600 meters
Shortened version: the Karabiner 98k, which later became famous in World War II
🇫🇷 Lebel Model 1886
The French rifle. Technically functional but with a... questionable design 😬
Tube under the barrel that stored the bullets in a row
Recharging it was slow and complicated.
By 1915 it was already considered outdated even by the French themselves.
But they continued using it because there was no quick alternative in production.
🇺🇸 Springfield M1903
The American rifle, based directly on the Mauser design (Germany sued the US for royalties 💀)
Exceptionally accurate
American snipers adored him
5 bullets, reloads with bullet strips (clips).

Submarine warfare — Germany almost wins at sea
The U-boats (German submarines) were a new and terrifying technology.
They sank civilian, commercial, and military ships indiscriminately.
The sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 killed 1,198 civilians and began to draw the U.S. into the conflict
Germany almost succeeded in isolating Great Britain by cutting off its supplies.
The Tank — Spoiler for 1916
In 1915 they weren't yet in combat, but they were being developed in secret. The British called them "tanks" in documents so that spies would think they were... water tanks. The name stuck.

Aviation — from toy to weapon of war
At first, people laughed at airplanes in combat. By 1915, nobody was laughing anymore.
The first pilots were shooting at each other with pistols from the planes 💀
Germany introduced the Fokker Eindecker — the first real fighter with a machine gun synchronized with the propeller (it did not fire itself)
Aviation aces were born as public celebrity figures
German zeppelins also appeared, bombing London at night.
☠️ Poison gas — the most hated weapon
Germany used it massively for the first time in Ypres, April 1915
Chlorine first, then mustard gas (the worst — it didn't kill quickly, it burned lungs and skin for days)
The initial "defense" was to urinate on a rag and put it on his face 💀💀
Then came the gas masks, but they were uncomfortable and imperfect.
Artillery — the real mass killer
80% of the casualties in the war were caused by artillery, not bullets.
The 1915 cannons could fire projectiles of up to 900 kg
The sound of the bombings on the Somme could be heard as far away as London.
They destroyed the land so completely that maps became obsolete in hours.
Trenches — survival technology
It wasn't just digging holes. It was complex engineering:
Systems of 3 parallel lines connected by corridors
Electrified barbed wire in no man's land
Sandbags, wood, concrete
Kilometers of underground tunnels where thousands of soldiers lived
The British detonated underground mines so large that the sound reached Dublin
Machine guns — the end of cavalry
One machine gun could do the work of 60 soldiers
The cavalry charge, a tactic glorious for centuries, became instant suicide
It took generals YEARS to accept that Napoleonic tactics no longer worked
Result: thousands of soldiers dying in frontal charges against machine gun nests.

The Central Powers
Country X
Role
🇩🇪 Germany
The most powerful player, war on two fronts.
🇦🇹 Austria-Hungary
The one who formally started the conflict.
🇹🇷 Ottoman Empire
Middle Eastern front, in total decline.
🇧🇬 Bulgaria
It was joined in 1915 in revenge for previous wars.

The "Good Guys"
🤝 The Triple Entente (the "Allies")
Country
X role
🇫🇷 France
Western Front, defense of its own territory.
🇬🇧 Great Britain
Dominant naval power, troops in France and colonies.
🇷🇺 Russia
Eastern Front, huge army but poorly equipped.
🇮🇹 Italy
He entered in 1915, betraying his original allies 💀.
🇺🇸 USA
He joined very late in 1917, but he was decisive.
🇷🇸 Serbia
The spark that started it all.
🇯🇵 Japan
He took advantage of the situation to seize German colonies in Asia.

Following the thread of the First World War, the origin has several layers:
The immediate spark
On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian-Serbian nationalist. This triggered a series of ultimatums and declarations of war within weeks.
The underlying causes (the gunpowder barrel was already full)
Militarism — European powers had been engaged in a brutal arms race for decades, especially Germany vs. Great Britain in naval power.
Alliances — Europe was divided into two blocs: the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy) vs. the Triple Entente (France, Russia, Great Britain). A local conflict automatically drew everyone in.
Imperialism — The powers competed for colonies and resources in Africa and Asia, generating constant tensions.
Nationalism — Especially dangerous in the Balkans, where the Austro-Hungarian Empire controlled Slavic populations that wanted independence or unification with Serbia.
The domino effect
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia → Russia mobilized its troops → Germany declared war on Russia and France → Germany invaded Belgium → Great Britain entered the conflict.
In less than 6 weeks since the assassination, almost all of Europe was at war.